Scents To Use Deer Hunting

A trip to your local sporting goods store to purchase deer scents can be a confusing ordeal.  One of the questions I most often receive from hunters is "What type of scent should I use for deer hunting?" The answer to that question often depends on who you ask and the time of year you are hunting deer.  Let's get started by looking at the different types of scents and when to use them.

Deer Hunting Cover Scents-

Cover scents are designed to mask or hide human scent.  Cover scents come in a wide variety of different options from natural smells such as earth, pine, oak, etc.  to fox urine, skunk, coon and more.  There is even a deer turd cover scent on the market.  I'm not sure I want a deer bad enough to spread deer crap cover scent all over my body but to each his own. Although cover scent works some times I prefer to focus on scent control using carbon clothing, scent elimination sprays and setting up to use the wind to my advantage.  I am sure some hunters and scent manufactures will disagree with me but I do not use cover scents.  I've never seen a skunk up a tree and I would bet a deer hasn't either.  If you do use a cover scent make sure it is natural to the area you are hunting.  For example if you are hunting in a pine forest maybe a pine scent isn't the best choice.  One other note about cover scents.  A few years ago I went bow hunting with a friend who was pretty new to hunting and as we were walking to our stands he proceeded to take some doe in heat pee from his pack and splash it all over his body.  THIS IS NOT A GOOD COVER SCENT.  For one thing deer do not climb trees and more importantly splashing doe in heat pee on yourself is a good way to get mauled by a horny buck.

Scents for Attracting Deer

There are many different attractant scents for deer on the market today.  Some of these scents are meant to imitate food such as corn or apples others are just meant to attract curious deer.   Still other scents are made from doe and buck pee and are meant to be sexual attractants around the rut.  In my personal opinion forget the food smelling attractant scents and go with one of the doe or buck pee attractants.  Which one you choose depends allot on the portion of the rut you are hunting.   

Pre Rut Deer Scents

During the pre rut deer are often running in bachelor groups and busy establishing dominance.  When hunting the pre rut I will typically use some sort of dominate buck urine.   If hunting the same area for a while I like to create a mock scrape and drop a few drips of dominate buck urine in the mock scrape with in range of my deer stand.  Each day I will freshen the scrape in the hopes of getting another mature buck in the area to start checking the hot scrape looking for this mystery buck.  Through out the hunting season I will drip a few drops of dominate buck urine on the trail near my stand in a spot that offers me a excellent shot.  99% of the time the deer walking the trail will stop and check out the scent offering me a great shot.  I have bagged quite a few deer using this tactic and use it all season long.

Full Rut Scents

During the full rut I will set up a   scent bomb or wick near my stand with some sort of estrus doe pee.  During the rut bucks are actively looking for does and a estrus scent along with calling will often bring a wandering buck in close enough for a good shot.

Post Rut Scents

During post rut hunting I don't use scents very much at all other then a few well placed drops in the area I am hoping to stop a buck for a good shot.  This is the time of year when I use up what ever is in my pack or go with out scent at all.  During post rut I focus on food sources and try and hunt early morning and just before dusk.

Knowing which scent to use and when to use it can help you harvest more deer but there is no substitute for good scouting and learning deer patterns.